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Former Open champion Padraig Harrington admitted Carnoustie wore him down as he missed the cut at the site of his first Open title.

Harrington added a second round of 74 to his opening 76 to finish eight over par, comfortably outside the projected halfway cut.

"Knowing that we're on the wrong side of the draw, those three shots I dropped in the last three holes yesterday [Thursday] afternoon really put me behind the eight ball for sure," said Harrington, who defeated Sergio Garcia in a play-off the last time Carnoustie staged the Open in 2007.

"I'm not 100 per cent sure, but I definitely seemed to run out of steam both days.

"Maybe I just made it a bit difficult for myself for the first 14 holes, even if I was scoring OK. It's far from stress-free, let's put it like that.

"Maybe the course wore me down, that's what I mean. You're not creating too many chances and even if you're getting up and down, it is wearing. It got the better of me at the end."

Harrington could at least lay claim to a contender for the most unorthodox birdie of the day after being forced to play his second shot on the par-five sixth while leaning over the out-of-bounds fence.

"It was a bit of a shock to finish where we did, but I did hit a nice shot with a nine iron," Harrington said.

"I wouldn't have liked for it to be out of bounds, but where it finished was obviously very awkward. I was happy with that birdie though."